It was eight and a half years ago that I wrote a Roll Call column saying goodbye to "Inside Politics ," the five-days-a-week CNN program that not only helped launch my career as a political analyst and handicapper, but, more importantly, constituted the gold standard for in-depth political coverage on weekday TV.

I believed then, and still believe now, that the decision to kill that show, made by Jonathan Klein, then the president of CNN/U.S., was stupid. There was a considerable appetite for a news and analysis program like “Inside Politics” back then, and that appetite has only grown.

I hope that John King, who knows politics, succeeds with the new "IP." But a half-hour program early Sunday morning will have a hard time rebuilding the brand or matching the importance that the daily program had under the helm of Bernie Shaw and Judy Woodruff.